After a long rest

Week 85

This week I was in South Korea with work. It is a very beautiful country with amazing history, culture and unbelievable countryside. Seoul is very hectic and crazy like most major cities with a very interesting mix of old and new, eastern and western influences. I must also say it is by a long way the cleanest major city I have ever been to.

Ahead of the trip I made arrangements to swim at the Seoul Olympic pool but due to a number of things I was only able to swim once the entire week. The company we are partnered with decided to upgrade our hotel arrangements which was very nice of them but it meant I was even further from the pool. Due to breakfast meetings the first few days I was unable to swim early and then we had all day meetings. One of the days we drove 2 hrs south to Sejong the new city where many of the government ministry's are being relocated. I did a couple of 4-5 mile runs the first couple of days which made a nice change but also meant I hurt in areas I don't normally hurt, like my calfs. On Wednesday I started to feel flu like symptoms coming on. We had a conference our partner put on Thursday and I don't know how I got through the day but somehow I did. On Friday I had to excuse myself from meetings and spent the day sleeping at the hotel. Saturday before we left I was determined to get a swim at the Olympic pool and I swam a short swim which was awesome. I swam Olympic trials in 88 and had friends who made it to the games that year and it was very inspiring to be able to swim in the pool. The facility is looking quite old but still well worth the visit and something I will remember for a long time.

I arrived back last night and despite still having some head congestion I feel much better and it's great to be home. I am really looking forward to getting back in the pool this week and getting refocused on my swimming. Worlds are just around the corner and I need to start ramping up my efforts.

Comments

Very cool to have nabbed an Olympic pool on your trip. I did almost the exact same thing when I was in Sydney in '03, managing to sneak into the Olympic pool there finally on Saturday morning after a week of zero training (not even running) due to hectic meetings.

Very cool that you were able to swim in the Seoul Olympic Pool, although sad to hear it isn't holding up very well

I was over there for the whole year in 1991 while in the US Army, and went back for a few days in 1996 (while I was doing a semester of grad school in Tokyo). I did make it to the Olympic pool once, and most of the military bases have decent lap pools (they turn into a real zoo during the day though). If you were anywhere near Youngsan, the 8th Army HQ base had a decent pool (though not sure you could get on base). The Air Force base pools were even nicer.

Interesting that the city was so clean, I don't remember that at all, but maybe they've made extra efforts to clean it up.

I'd love to go back sometime... I still speak some of the language (it was my job), and it kind of freaks people out when I do (there's some Koreans who hang out in the hot tub at my gym, they talk about me right in front of me).

Very cool to have nabbed an Olympic pool on your trip. I did almost the exact same thing when I was in Sydney in '03, managing to sneak into the Olympic pool there finally on Saturday morning after a week of zero training (not even running) due to hectic meetings.

i would love to swim in many of the Olympic pools. I am looking at the 2016 European Masters Championships which are in the London Olympic pool. I don't believe you have to be European to sign up and will try to convince our masters team to attend. Since my mother still coaches in England we maybe able to arrange some sort of exchange program with her team or something.

Very cool that you were able to swim in the Seoul Olympic Pool, although sad to hear it isn't holding up very well

I was over there for the whole year in 1991 while in the US Army, and went back for a few days in 1996 (while I was doing a semester of grad school in Tokyo). I did make it to the Olympic pool once, and most of the military bases have decent lap pools (they turn into a real zoo during the day though). If you were anywhere near Youngsan, the 8th Army HQ base had a decent pool (though not sure you could get on base). The Air Force base pools were even nicer.

Interesting that the city was so clean, I don't remember that at all, but maybe they've made extra efforts to clean it up.

I'd love to go back sometime... I still speak some of the language (it was my job), and it kind of freaks people out when I do (there's some Koreans who hang out in the hot tub at my gym, they talk about me right in front of me).

i have not spoken to my wife about this but the 2017 Worlds are in Gwangu Korea and I would love to take my family to visit. Obviously it's a long way off but it would be a great way to show my family Korea and get a swim in. It looks like Gwangu is in the south west corner of the country so again would be a great excuse to travel while in Korea.

i could have done with your language ability on this trip since it really limits what I can do with just English. In most places I have been I can get by but in Korea I can't even memorize street names. Hangul apparently is relatively easy to sound out words but I can't even do that let alone understand the sounds.